Cortes Island
M̓i tel'nexw Leadership Transformation
With Chepximiya Siyam' Hereditary Chief Janice George, Squamish Nation, Skwetsimeltxw Willard ‘Buddy’ Joseph, Squamish Nation, Ta7talíya Michelle Nahanee, Squamish Nation and Lloyd James Attig, Muskoday First Nation, Plains Cree
Work Exchange
2025 Hollyhock Holiday
INTERNAL HOLIDAY PAGE Reconnect to yourself and nature in our spectacular West Coast island setting. Take a breath of fresh air outside of the city, and enjoy the serenity and beauty of our local landscape. Our holiday packages include: Accommodations A variety of accommodations are located throughout our lush campus, ranging in price to suit […]
2026 Program Page Template
Bold first sentence. Include a short program description of 1-2 paragraphs, around 250 words. An ideal program description should provide a concise overview of the event, making it easy for potential participants to understand the value it offers. Be sure to include key details: the presenter's name, program content, location, and the program's potential benefits. […]
Expressive Journaling: Tending the Fire Within
With Jenn Forgie
"I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing. I want to know if you will stand in the centre of the fire with me and not shrink back..." —Oriah Mountain Dreamer, "The Invitation" Expressive Journaling: Tending the Fire Within is a five-day creative journaling […]
Sketch by Sketch: Connecting with the World Through Drawing
With Emma FitzGerald
Learn to sketch without fear of making mistakes! Join celebrated author/illustrator, Emma FitzGerald as she leads participants through a series of exercises that build confidence and improves observation skills, while allowing for the happy accidents that make a drawing that speaks from the heart. Using pen and watercolour paint, and working both together and independently […]
Meditation, Movement, Mystery
With Jeff Warren
Join writer and meditation teacher Jeff Warren for a journey into the mystery of meditation and what it can teach us about being human. This will be a different kind of retreat. Less structured, more room for silence and spontaneity. The idea is to make space for some of the deeper and more personalized movements […]
Nonviolent Communication: A Body-Based Approach
With Farah Nazarali
This innovative approach to Nonviolent Communication (NVC) takes the body as the foundation for understanding how we communicate; what stands in the way of skillful communication, and when to take a step back from engaging with others. Explore the deeper layers of communication- body language, tone, intonation, and rhythm and what these body-based cues reveal […]
Pilgrimage to Silence: A Nature Based Retreat for Rest & Renewal
With Valerie Brown
Please note: This is a dãna-based retreat (see below for details). The registration fee is included in package pricing and does not include teacher compensation. Deeply immersed in nature and exploring the theme of pilgrimage, this silent retreat is designed to cultivate rest, reflection, renewal, and restoration. In these times of change, high stress, and […]
Qi Medicine: Healing Through Qigong & Nature
With Stephanie Nosco and Ben Leggett
Experience the medicine of Qigong and Nature Connection on this transformative inner journey back to yourself. Join Qigong teacher, author, and somatic educator Stephanie Nosco, alongside nature connection guide and educator Ben Leggett, for this special silent retreat that explores the art of Qigong and the practice of deep relationship with the living world. We […]
Awake in Our Lives: A Silent Meditation Retreat
With Celeste Young
Please note: This is a dãna-based retreat (see below for details). The registration fee is included in package pricing and does not include teacher compensation. During this silent meditation retreat, we will focus on practices that calm the mind and awaken the heart to support the deepening of insight and inner freedom here and now, […]
Resilience for Uncertain Times: Wild Earth, Steady Heart
With Kristan Childs and Teddy Kellam
Join Kristan Childs and Teddy Kellam for the Work That Reconnects spiral, a joyful and coherent path to inner wisdom and vitality during unsteady times. “To be alive in this beautiful, self-organizing universe — to participate in the dance of life with senses to perceive it, lungs that breathe it, organs that draw nourishment from […]
Write From Your Heart
With Susan Musgrave
“Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional” - attributed to the Dalai Lama. It is hard work, when we are grieving, not to suffer; suffering — personal and universal — has become a condition of how we live. Writing, especially poetry, fiction, journaling and memoir, has always been a place where we can count on being […]
Ebb & Flow: Kayaking & Yoga Practice (May)
With Kai Harvey
Immerse yourself in the rhythms of the natural world and the ebb and flow of the Salish Sea. Hollyhock, located on the southern coastline of Cortes Island (on the unceded land of the toq qaymɩxʷ (Klahoose), ɬəʔamɛn qaymɩxʷ (Tla’amin), and ʔop qaymɩxʷ (Homalco) Nations) is an ideal basecamp and launch point for kayaking adventures. Against […]
Life Balance Retreat: Opening to Inner and Outer Change
With Celeste Young
How well we navigate changes and transitions has a direct impact on the degree of well-being, meaning, and balance we experience in our daily lives. Whether you’re contemplating a major change, are in the midst of one now, or are still feeling the impact of past changes, this unique retreat offers you personal understanding and […]
From Age-ing to Sage-ing®: Deepening the Sage Within
With Annie Klein
A great gift of our older years is the potential for deepening wisdom and expanding possibilities. As more and more of us are living longer, we want these extra years to be vibrant, inspiring and fulfilling. This program will help you discover what gives your life meaning as you age. An intimate gathering where we […]
Mindful Self-Compassion
With Susie Fairchild and Martin Thomson-Jones, PhD
Application is required before registering. You may apply here. This 5-day residential program is an intensive form of the internationally recognized, eight-session Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) training developed by Christopher Germer and Kristin Neff. It is open to laypeople and professionals alike. Participants will learn to: understand the science of self-compassion, practice self-compassion in daily life, […]
Contemplative Mind, Spontaneous Brush: Ink, Colour and Japanese Washi Papers
With Heather Midori Yamada
Relax body, breath and mind with short guided meditations and simple perceptual exercises. Follow brushwork demonstrations using Japanese sumi ink, watercolour and acrylic on various Japanese washi papers (provided). Inspired by the natural beauty of Cortes Island, we will explore mixed media approaches of layering, tearing and collaging. Deep intuitive and directed studies lead to […]
Skymind: Sacred Land, Sacred View
With Lopöns Pieter Oosthuizen and Charlotte Rotterdam
"Anyone who is interested in learning how to practice open awareness has come to the right place." -Skymind Participant Immerse yourself in the profound nature of mind teachings of Buddhism, with transformational practices inspired by the great 11th century Tibetan yogini Machig Labdrön. Relaxing your body onto the earth, gazing into the vast expanse of […]
Watercolour and the Art of Seeing
With David McEown
Explore watercolour’s magical flowing spontaneity and essential techniques as you paint directly from nature. Enhance your perception, way of “seeing”, and connectedness to the earth with this travel-friendly medium. Enjoy dynamic watercolour demonstrations; exploring paint as a form of meditation and play. Uncover the secret hydrodynamics of watercolour paint and the brush work manipulation of […]
Core Matter: Yamuna® Body Rolling & Pilates Essentials
With Namchi Bazar
Release pain and restrictions for a total body awakening and rejuvenation. Explore two complementary modalities to support your journey of self-discovery and self-healing. Let go of unproductive holding patterns as you develop effective body-wellness routines that are easy to incorporate into your home practice. Focus on foundational movements that help you exercise without pain and […]
Coastal Foraging Adventure
With Robin Kort
Forage for wild food and cook with professional forager, cookbook author and sommelier Chef Robin Kort of Swallow Tail Culinary Adventures. Connect to the food of the coastal ecosystem on Cortes Island from forest to sea. Foraging at the sea tunes your senses to the ebb and flow of the tides, teaching us to time […]
The Sovereign Soul: Relating in a Rapidly Changing World
With Dené Logan
The relationship structures that have existed for centuries are being challenged in ways they never have before. We are beginning to question the origin points of survival strategies rooted in codependency, people-pleasing, and whether or not longevity is the best marker for what constitutes relational success. While this questioning can lead to a deep sense […]
Cultivating Wellbeing for Health Professionals (2026)
With Andrea Grabovac, MD, FRCPC and Erin Burrell, MD, FRCPC
Replenish Yourself and Gain Tools for Living with Intention Join us for this mindfulness-based meditation retreat for health professionals and partners. Come away to the serene shores of Cortes Island to be replenished, restored, and equipped with tools to help navigate life in modern healthcare. This retreat emphasizes connection as key to vitality, and fosters […]
Reclaiming the Feminine Elements
With Andrea Menard
Discover the feminine faces of the 4 Sacred Elements that dwell within you. Have you met your own version of Earth Woman, Wind Womxn, Water Woman, or Fire Womxn yet? You are the medicine wheel that contains these four sacred Elementals. In this western world that has undermined the Sacred Feminine, unwind the wounds inflicted […]
Resonance: A Deep Listening, Somatic Retreat
With Kiko Pace and Charlie Gates
Join Charlie and Kiko for an offering of deep listening and sonic exploration as we gather in the belly of Spring on Cortes Island. From sound meditations, reflective journaling, meditative movement practices, and dreaming, we venture to explore and expand our relationship to ways of listening, receiving, and generating creative awe. During our time together, […]
Dance of Connection
With Bettina Rothe
Come home to yourself, find connection and nourishment in community, and with the land. Together we take refuge in our primary language "rhythm", and find belonging in the dance. Expand your repertoire of how you can connect with others on the dance floor and in life. Release old patterns of relating that no longer serve […]
Awaken Your Senses to Creativity
With Zebith Thalden
Allow the natural landscapes of woodland, garden, and marine habitat be the location of your creative inspiration. We will spend time mindfully witnessing to expand the senses. From this awareness, we will then sketch both the profound and uniquely subtle elements of the environment. We will transform our observations into the visual, translating sound into […]
Groundwork: Breaking the Cycle of Overwhelm
With Amrita Ahuja and Tommaso Biasiolo
If you feel like life has become a constant cycle of reacting, pushing, and catching up — you’re not alone. Most of us are running on systems that keep us overloaded and exhausted. Surrounded by the beauty of Cortes Island, reset your patterns and restore your focus. Groundwork integrates mindfulness with a simple system for […]
We Are Elemental: Embodying Earth, Water, Fire, Air & Ether
With Sebene Selassie
You are nature. Your bones are earth. Your blood is water. Your warmth is fire. Your breath is air. And the mystery that animates it all? That's ether (also called spirit or space). Various elements are honored across countless traditions—from ancient Egypt and Greece to India and China to Indigenous cultures throughout Africa, the Americas, […]
Embodied Practices for Collective Thriving
With Roula Said, Julia Aplin, Shannon Litzenberger and Andrea Nann
In this time of intersecting social, political, and planetary crises, how do we embrace and honour all that is arising in us as bodies? What if we listen closely to what we feel in our hearts, what we know in our bones? Can we resonate care and connection across our differences, tuning into our sense […]
Singing in the Vocal River
With Rhiannon
Hear your own song and learn new ones as you find your place in the world of music and invention. Co-create vocal magic in a safe, dynamic circle of singers, delving into the possibilities of spontaneous composition and the language of storytelling. Working alone, in pairs, and in ensemble, meld intuition and invention with skill […]
Freedom Begins with Letting Go
With Chelene Knight
Join award-winning writer and creative practitioner Chelene Knight for a transformative journey into letting go and deepening your understanding of self. Through emotionally rich and immersive activities, such as letter writing, discovering personal connections in meaningful objects, guided meditations, and discussions on abstract ideas like love, loss, and grief explored through literary greats such as […]
Homecoming: A Source + Spirit Journey
With Mara Branscombe
Return to your body Reconnect with your source Remember your spirit There comes a time in each season of life when we’re called to return to the breath, to the body, and to the shifting rhythms that need tending. Source + Spirit is an immersive journey into your most authentic self—through the elemental wisdom of […]
Tapping the Stream: Summer Writing Retreat
With Shaena Lambert and Betsy Warland
Tapping the Stream is a 6-day writing retreat - free from interruption - to explore the direction of a work in progress, as well as to foster creativity through community with other writers. This unique retreat combines self-directed writing time, a one-on-one session with both Betsy and Shaena, several morning craft intensives (focusing on subjects […]
Murmuration
With Margie Gillis and Rhiannon
The culmination of 30 years of teaching side-by-side programs at Hollyhock comes next summer with this long-awaited collaboration! Join Margie Gillis and Rhiannon for their first joint-retreat at Hollyhock, MURMURATION. Murmuration is the form where body and voice meet, movement and sound, in equal measure. The starlings move in the sky by the hundreds and […]
Pwātamowin - the act of dreaming: A Yogic Retreat
With Malina Dawn
Pwātamowin is a Cree word meaning “the act of dreaming.” But this is not the kind of dreaming you do when you sleep; it is akin to catching visions. This planet needs more healed people and a big part of that process is us being able to catch a beautiful and powerful healing vision for […]
When Love Liberates
With Dawn Mauricio and Kate Johnson
The liberated heart knows how to expand and contract, allowing love to flow in and out like the tides. Like roots that deepen through coastal storms, through practice we discover that opening and softening our hearts in challenging times, with wisdom and discernment, is itself an exercise in freedom. In this retreat, we’ll work with […]
Dancing from the Inside Out
With Margie Gillis
Move into your body’s experiential wisdom and reveal the soul in motion. Refine your sensitivity to the connection between thought, feeling, spirit and body as you listen in to your body’s inner wisdom, impulses, conversations and emotions. Becoming sensitive to and engaging with this inner life provides information both for expanding well-being, as well as […]
Witching Ways ~ Reviving Femme Folk Wisdom & Sensuous Power
With Heather Wolf
As the present meets the past, there is a collective wound of the feminine that we experience personally, ancestrally, and relationally. Yet, if we go back far enough, we also inherit lineages of wise women healers, known and unknown. These ways are in our bodies, as old as time, deeply of the earth, the hearth, […]
Radical Dharma: Conversation
With Rev. angel Kyodo williams Roshi
Together we can create the conditions for healing, reconnection, authentic community, and justice. Radical dharma (“complete truth”) is a way to enter the critical conversation about how the legacy of racial injustice and white supremacy plays out, preventing our collective awakening and connection. To shift, we must create conditions for radical honesty, where we drop […]
Energy Medicine Yoga for Surviving and Thriving
With Lauren Walker
In a world gone wild, with systems breaking down and apart, how do we keep ourselves balanced, healthy, connected and joyful? Steeped in the gorgeous landscape of Hollyhock, you will learn techniques for nervous system regulation, the skills to re-establish calm and grounding, and how to rewire your stress-response to be less reactive. We can’t […]
Healing Family & Ancestors: Ritual & Resonant Family Constellations
With Jill Purce
Transform inherited patterns into magical blessings, bringing harmony, joy, and order into your daily life. Activate the unconscious field of the ancestors, making it a rich source of wisdom and illumination. This healing program uncovers and restores aspects of the psyche that are normally closed to therapeutic methods, transforming negative patterns into natural blessings. Jill’s […]
Becoming One with the Spirit of the Drum
With Gordy Onayemi Ryan and Zoë Ryan
Activate the Fire in your hands, the Beat in your feet, and the Song in your Heart on this soulful journey in Rhythm in the iconic Olatunji Hall. Drum, dance and sing to increase the flow of vital energy in your body and open your ears to the beauty of rhythms and songs from many […]
Painting Nature, Here and Now
With Jeremy Herndl
Is it possible to have a conversation with nature? When we set up to paint outside we can take the time to notice that things are moving and changing before our eyes. Being here, immersed in colours, sounds and scents and through the reciprocity of looking and painting we connect with place, ourselves and each […]
Science, Art, Sound & The Sacred
With Merlin Sheldrake, Cosmo Sheldrake and Rupert Sheldrake
Explore the entanglements between science, art, sound, and the sacred in a beautiful, wild setting. Our imaginations are a critically important superpower and perhaps our primary means of survival. In this workshop, we will spend time both indoors and outdoors -- in gardens, on seashores and in forests -- connecting with the more-than-human world and […]
Nine Patterns of Developmental Pathways
With Dan Siegel, M.D.
In this immersive, interactive workshop retreat with Dan Siegel, participants will learn about their own lives, how persistent patterns of emotion, thinking, and behaviour—known as “personality”—may have formed, and how to enable those potential prisons to transform into platforms of possibility that serve as playgrounds in life. Dan offers a view from the trans-disciplinary field […]
Salish Shorelines: A Saltwater Journey
With Jonas Fineman and Kai Harvey
Join Cortes Island guides and mariners for a kayaking exploration of the Salish Sea surrounding the renowned Hollyhock Campus. Each day’s adventure offers a safe and comprehensive foray into the seascapes and histories of Desolation Sound and the Discovery Islands. Launching from various beaches around Cortes Island as well as from the 43 foot schooner […]
Embrace the Edge: Yoga Immersion
With Fiji McAlpine
As ever-evolving beings we are always riding on the edge of the next greatest version of ourselves. In yoga the pose is not the point, but rather a tool that we use to explore our own inner alignment in an outward expression. Asanas will be a guide for our own expansion and unfolding and allow […]
Becoming a Spiritual Healer Level I: The Essentials Cohort #2b
With Julie Kramer
This blended learning professional training is designed for individuals who are called to facilitate spiritual healing and tend to the spiritual well-being of others. Those who feel drawn to working exclusively as spiritual healing practitioners, as well as those who feel drawn to offering spiritual healing in concert with one or more complementary healing modalities […]
Social Venture Institute Hollyhock 2026
With Hollyhock Leadership Institute
If you believe that business can (and should) be a catalyst for social and economic transformation, you belong at Social Venture Institute. Join Canada’s longest-running social enterprise gathering to find the inspiration, resources, and relationships you need to propel your mission forward. SVI is a five-day oceanside gathering of 100+ CEOs, entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, movement leaders, […]